The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on 24 August that Turkey has provided its specialized firefighting aircraft and joined in the efforts to extinguish the forest fires which have been raging in Borjomi Municipality since 19 August.
The Turkish aircraft, which holds an 8-ton water tank, has been involved in the works since this morning. Per the MIA, two more specialized firefighting aircraft will also be involved in the work.
The MIA denoted that fire localization and extinguishing works continued throughout the night, while Georgian Border Police resumed their work with helicopters this morning.
“Due to high temperature and wind, different sections of the fire are still in existence,” the MIA explained. They highlighted, however, that heavy machinery and tractors have cleared roads to almost all of the fires allowing access to fire-rescue vehicles.
The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Ioseb Chelidze, and the Head of the Emergency Situations Management Agency, Temur Mghebrishvili, remain on site. According to the MIA, more than 1,000 people from various Georgian government institutions are involved in the fire-fighting works.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)